Court Throws Out McDonald's Lawsuit

Friday, January 5th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

HONG KONG (AP) â€” Health regulators who sued McDonald's over a piece of paper allegedly found inside a hash brown potato have been ordered to pay legal costs by a magistrate who threw out the ``trivial'' charge, officials said Friday.

Magistrate Siu Lai-chow ordered the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department to pay $3,846, officials said.

The department received a complaint on May 19 from a man, identified only by the surname Lui, who said he had found ``a piece of tissue-like paper in a hash brown'' sold by the fast-food company, according to Joyce Ma, a spokeswoman for the department. Ma said a health inspector examined the food and found sufficient evidence to take McDonald's to court.

The magistrate disagreed, throwing out the ``trivial matter'' on Thursday. Siu described Lui as ``overanxious'' and said it would be a waste of public money to test for germs on the piece of paper, according to a report in the South China Morning Post.

McDonald's spokeswoman Brenda Wong declined to comment, saying the government could appeal.